Showing data; when, why and how
Mahbubul Majumder, PhD
Jan 31, 2017
Should we generate this graphics
- What is the data here?
Should we generate this graphics
- What is the data here?
- What information are we showing here?
| year |
enrolment |
| 1972 |
28.0 |
| 1973 |
29.2 |
| 1974 |
32.8 |
| 1975 |
33.6 |
| 1976 |
33.0 |
- Displaying % of enrolled students age 25 and up
- Which display is better and why?
What do you think of this table?
What do you think of this table?
Some rules to follow
- Remove colors, gridlines, fills, border, bolding
- Left align text data, right align numbers and align respective column heading accordingly
- Resize columns to data
- Put some blank lines to separate different data
- Be consistent in precision, round the number, avoid big numbers instead scale them
- Avoid repetition of text and symbols
- Emphasize the row you want to bring attention to
- You can add foot notes if you want to explain some complex data
- Careful about fonts, calibri is not good, sans serif is acceptable
Source: 
Source: